Rainbow Stew

Have your kids ever seen those commercials for those artsy magic board things. For only $19.95 you can own your own . . .

Or you can make your own.


Rainbow Stew

Materials Needed:
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup corn starch
4 cups water
Food Coloring

Instructions:

Mix together all ingredients in a sauce pan. Stir constantly and heat until the mixture begins to thicken. Remove from heat and let cool.

Divided the mixture into three bowls. Add a different color of food coloring to each bowl (1-red, 1-blue, 1-yellow). Put approximately three tablespoon of each color into a ziplock bag. Seal the bag and tape the top closed. Knead the baggie to mix colors just enough to look like a rainbow rainbow. Lay bag down on a hard surface and gently press to flatten it. I usually double bag mine.

Shayla practices fingertracing her letters, shapes and words on it.

For more frugal Friday ideas, check out Crystal's.

Bubble Painting

I've been wanting to do this activity for awhile, but bubbles don't last long in our house! They get popped in NO time flat. We got some the other day and I put them back for this fun activity.

First the girls painted the bubbles. (Yes, Morgan was home from school and actually helped. I love to see the girls sharing and working together, because it's something that never happens!)

Then we put the painted bubbles on top of paper.

Ta-da! Another masterpiece!

We might save these and use as wrapping paper for family members gifts!

Star Shaped Crayons

The girls and I made these awesome crayons.

First, we peeled the crayons and broke into tiny pieces.

Then, I melted them and poured them into these Pampered Chef ice cube trays. I coated mine with some canola oil before adding melted crayon.

I put them in the freezer until they hardened. Use a knife to go around the shape, then beat upside down on the counter.

They make coloring different and fun! They're especially good for younger kids!

We tried several science experiments with this project. We tried putting the crayons in the trays in the back window of my car in the direct sunlight. I totally did not want to smell the fumes of melted crayon. It did not work.

We also tried microwaving the crayons in the trays, that also was a failure.

Here Comes Shayla the Menace

Dennis the Menace is one of our family's all-time favorite movies! If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend you go to your nearest library and get it, or buy it, it's one your family will be sure to watch again and again (and again . . . and again)oh, sorry.

Anyway, in the movie there is a scene where Dennis is in the bathtub. He has his little plastic army men lined up on the side of the tub. He is "shooting" them down with water.

My little darling decided that this looked like the funnest thing in the whole world to do, however, me being the plan spoiler that I am, said,

"Uh-uh, no way, you are not shooting water all over my bathroom."

Explanation: We have a sunken whirlpool tub, not a regular bathtub. The water would seep down into my grout and under flooring.

Since I have a hard time saying no to anything my little darling wants to do, we took this idea outside. She lined the little plastic army men up on the deck step. She used an empty dishsoap bottle filled with water as a watergun.

Ready!


Aim!
Fire!
Look at that face! She looks so serious about this!

Now I know you're thinking that's not the usual learn through play stuff that I like, but wait, she is using her hand muscles to squeeze the water. She is using hand/eye coordination to knock the guys down. She is also using fine motor skills to set the guys back up. See it is educational!

We did a mini-unit study on carnival games after reading Dora at the Carnival book. This is one of the games we included.

Are you doing any fun stuff with your kids, now that school has started?

Marble Painting

I borrowed this idea from Shayla's former preschool teacher, Miss Pam. It was a hit then and still is!

First, find an old cake or pie pan. Have child trace around the pan. Cut the circle out that was

traced and put in bottom of pan.

I put several colors of washable paint on an old margarine lid. Our palette can then be reused. I give her choice of several colors. She dips a marble in a color of paint...

Then, she rolls the marble by tilting the pan. . . This Way!

. . . And rolls it that way!

Here is the finished project.

It reminds me of the spiral art thing that I enjoyed at our county fair when I was a small girl. Ok, I guess I'm showing my age!

Anyway, this would be a great project for letter M week.

Window Writing

What! Am I crazy letting my kids draw on the window! No! I told you I was desperate for my child to strengthen her hand muscles for fine motor skills.

We change decorations for every season. We usually have different window clings and other things. When we change decorations, we clean the windows. So since later today we will be decorating with apples and such for fall and the first day of school, I decided to let Shayla have a little window art.

Crayola makes a window marker especially for this. They are very easy to clean up. But we could not find ours today. So we used dry erase markers. They clean up just as well.

I think we will do this again when practicing our writing or spelling. It motivates her much more to do things in a fun and unusual way.

Extreme Makeover Treehouse Edition

With all the painting, spring cleaning, decluttering, and such I've been doing lately...Shayla decided she needed to do a little redesign on her treehouse! Who knows, maybe she's the next Picasso.

I think the pictures speak for themselves! LOL!

Stringing Straw Necklaces

I bought this pack of straws at Kroger for 99 cents.

Shayla cut several straws into pieces.

Then I cut a necklace length piece of yarn. Putting scotch tape on one end makes it easier to string.

A beautiful necklace for dress up and a fun memory of time spent together!

Pom Pom Critter Fun

Today we made pom pom critters with some simple supplies I had around the house. All you need is pom poms or cotton balls, googlie eyes or make paper eyes, felt, construction paper or foam, scissors, and I recommend tacky glue. Regular glue did not seem to hold well.

We made a whole family.

Then Shayla played with them in her little wooden playhouse. You could even make a house for them using a shoebox and empty spools of thread, boxes or anything else for furniture.

Fun With Felt

Today we got out an old favorite of ours, the felt board.





I made our felt board by stapling a piece of blue felt over an old corkboard bulletin board. You could use thick cardboard or just a large piece of felt (and roll up for easy storage).

First we read this book:

Then Shayla added the pieces of felt just like the story says. (I made our Big, Green Monster felt kit).
A better shot of Big, Green Monster!

Here is a felt scene we made. Some of the pieces I made (felt is very cheap, sometimes 10 cents a sheet.) I also bought some of the pieces in kits at the dollar tree ($1 each). We made several scenes and discussed what was happening in the scene. Good imagination and language skills.

Spaghetti Painting - Who Says You Can't Play With Your Food?

As a child, I always remember getting in trouble for playing with my food, instead of eating it. Maybe that's why I encourage my daughter to play with food "at appropriate times."

She used the noodles as a paint brush


Now, she's really getting into it



Tada! The finished product!





This is good for fine motor skills and overcoming sensory issues with the texture/feel of the spaghetti and paint.

This is for all of you that are upset that I am wasting food and will tell me that there are many children starving in the world. That's what my mom used to tell me. This spaghetti was going to be thrown out anyway. People can only eat so much spaghetti! Besides all the sauce and meatballs was gone, so it wouldn't have been eaten, it would have sat in the back of the refrigerator until it was more suitable for a scientific experiment on mold.

I have been trying to have "face-time" with my youngest daughter everyday. For more ideas click on the homeschooling link in the categories section.

Shrink Art

The girls and I bought a Shrink Art kit and did it one time. I have wondered since then if you can use other plastics, like this container that held grapes. Before trying this experiment I googled it, and found out that it can be done.

According to google, you can use recycled containers as well as sheets of plastic found in office supply stores, like the transparency papers.

I cut smooth plastic pieces from the container. Then we rubber stamped designs on the plastic. We turned the plastic over because the ink continued to smear. We colored the designs with sharpie markers. We found it helpful to put a piece of white paper under the plastic so we could see the design better.

Before baking and after shots.


We tried placing on a cookie sheet and baking in the sun, but it did not work. We baked them on a cookie sheet in the oven at 225 degrees for 5 minutes. Be sure to leave the oven light on so you can watch the plastic shrink up!

Homemade Smelly Playdough - Or Another Use for Kool-Aid

Shayla convinced me that she was in desperate need of new playdough because her old stuff was getting too hard (that's what happens when you leave it out, boys & girls).

Anyway, she's really into this arts and crafts time that we've been doing daily so we got the old craft cookbook (The Little Hand Art Book) out and concocted this stuff.

Here's the recipe I use for playdough the consistency of store bought playdough.

1 c. flour
1/2 c. salt
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 Tbs. cooking oil
1 c. water

Add your choice of food color, kool aid (for a fragrant dough)and/or glitter (for a textured dough). On this particular batch, we chose to use some blue blast koolaid that I recently had to buy to get free planter's cashews.

Mix ingredients in saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until dough leaves side of pan. Then remove from pan and store in plastic baggie or container. (I like to recycle cake frosting containers for playdough).

We spent the afternoon playing with her playdough toys, my cookie cutters, rolling it into a snake and cutting with a plastic knife (good fine motor exercise). She put it into my cake decorating tube used several tips and squeezed it out (*Warning: Only do this with NEW playdough - trust me, I know).

We also like to give playdough and a small bag of cookie cutters, plastic knife, etc. as a gift. What mother wouldn't love for their little darlings to bring playdough home?

Do you use a different recipe? What other concoctions have you made with your kids? Please share!

Puppet Fun

Today we made puppets from this kit I bought at Hobby Lobby several months ago. It was marked down to a dollar.

Here's the monster puppets we created. Cute huh?

Unfortunately the plastic pieces included in this kit were too heavy. I will try to hot glue gun them later, but I promised a puppet show, so....

The Show Must Go On...

Here's Shayla playing with the puppet stage I bought her for Christmas several years ago.

Catalog Scrapbooking

I didn't think I'd ever get to participate in Kendra's Minimizing Monday because I am a packrat, but this is what I do with our extra magazines/catalogs.

Find out how others deal with an overflowing magazine basket and other minimizing hints at Handprints on the Wall.

In an earlier post I confessed my addiction to STUFF. There must be a genetic predisposition to the addiction of stuff because my girls have it, too.

My youngest daughter loves to look at Parents, Family Fun magazine and oodles of catalogs we get like American Girl and My Twinn. She also has an obsession for cool school supplies, so she loves the Discount School Supply catalog. In fact, she loves these things so much that most copies are old, and dog-eared from "being loved so much," as I call it.

You see, when my daughter was little we thought she had autism. We were concerned about her lack of being able to read unverbal cues, like facial expressions and body language. We would sit down together and look at the magazines/catalogs and talk about the people in it. What they were doing? How do you think they feel? She loves to do this still, although she now has no problems with nonverbal cues.

I have tried to toss some of these magazines/catalogs in the past, but I just can't do it. These are all such prized possessions to her. She remembers the names of the people that have names by their photos. ALL OF THEM!!! So for now, I'll just move onto another pile!

I did convince her to part with some of her catalogs. We made it a fun activity! Shayla just loves all my crafty things. She loves to get out my rubber stampers and my scrapbook scissors.

Sooo...we cut out pictures of dolls and girls with the scrapbook scissors and glued them into what she calls her catalog scrapbook. Just like mom's. She came up with the name herself, isn't that cute!

What a fun and easy way to work on fine motor skills, like cutting and gluing for school!

Salt "Sand" Art Fun

First, we poured salt into into an old muffin pan that I designated specifically for crafts. Then add six drops of food color. Stir until all salt is colored. Place outside or someplace warm so it will dry out.

The first craft we made was one of those sand art jars like I used to make at the county fair. Ok, I'm showing my age here, but it was a fun childhood memory. Anyway, I washed a plastic honey jar and removed the label. Shayla added layers of colored sand. She enjoyed using a funnel to make it go through.

Here's the finished project! Sorry for the bad photo!

Today's arts and crafts time, we took the leftover salt sand and covered a coloring page. First we printed pages from Hello Kids. Then we used a paint brush to apply a thin layer of glue over areas where we wanted to sprinkle the colored salt. It really makes the pages POP! This is a good fine motor and sensory activity because of the texture of the salt

Laughing Pizza!!!

I love the name!!! It's a new kids' music group made up of a family including, mom - Lisa, dad - Billy, and pre-teen daughter - Emily. Their songs are very fun and moving for children. They featured the Breakfast Jive on our PBS station this morning. My daughter called me in to see it. We checked out their website and watched more of the videos and listened to their songs. My daughter listened to the songs several times and was singing and dancing right along. The best part about their music is that it was totally appropriate for my 7 year old. Nothing to explain or be embarrased about!!

*Note to Moms, pour yourself a cup of tea or coffee before sitting down to view the videos. There's about a dozen songs to listen/watch. Also, you probably wouldn't want to view these anywhere near naptime!!! Visit Laughing Pizza today!!

Playground Fun

I try to plan all my shopping/errands on the same day. If Shayla behaves well, I praise and verbally commend her actions and allow her one special activity with me to celebrate. She is like any child and thrives with this. Sometimes she picks the activity, sometimes I do, sometimes it's a spur of the moment thing. Like this recent trip to a playground. Here you see my two kids (Shayla & Big Kid, Dad), having a blast! Shayla loves climbing and exploring tunnels. She has been playing hard all summer. As a result, her muscles are stronger and it has improved her large motor skills and fine motor skills.

Going to the playground may not seem like a big feat, but to our family it is. Shayla will occasionally enjoy a playground visit. Her only requirement is that there be no other kids there. That's why it's an occasional treat. If there are kids, she hangs on us and watches the other people so much, that she's not even playing. Her senses just get overwhelmed by the confusion of kids screaming, the quick movements of many little bodies, etc, etc, etc. and she can't focus on having fun. I can't imagine having anxiety like that! Sometimes we just sit and watch and I talk about what is going on with her before "throwing her into the activity."

On another trip to a different playground (in which we were the only ones there). I made Shayla communicate where she wanted me to go with her. First by pointing, then later on by whispering. At first she was determined not to do this, but she was messing with the wrong mommy on that day. You see, it was one of those rare moments when I had all the time in the world. I could be just as stubborn as she. My persistence paid off. She whispered slide, tunnel, swing, bouncy, over there, etc.

Most people may think I'm crazy, but my child has been diagnosed with selective mutism. That means she can speak. Speaks very well, in fact. However, she only speaks when she wants to. Which most generally means, only at our home. Her safe little spot in the world. When she was five, she attended preschool for an entire year, and did not speak one word to ANYONE! Including me, when I was at her preschool. Her teachers were amazed when I brought in a video tape of her and I playing together at home. So, mom's not crazy, she CAN talk!!!

Anyways....I guess I got a little off topic here. We just enjoyed a family outing to a playground! A fun and frugal way to spend a day!!!